AP World History
Unit Three: 1450-1750

The peoples of central Mexico had long used a type of book called a codex to record their history. Codices included drawings and symbols painted by trained artist-scribes. Although the Spanish destroyed most of these codices, the codex tradition continued in a modified form in the century following conquest. These new codices, assembled under the supervision of
European missionaries, were composed largely by native people, many of them new converts to
Christianity and some literate in Latin and Spanish.
The following images are taken from the Florentine
Codex compiled under a Franciscan missionary that felt understanding Aztec culture was key to conversion. Because the missionary relied on Aztec informants and artists, many scholars believe these codices represent an Aztec point of view on the conquest. These were created decades later, so they show influences from Christiana and European

1. Why might Aztec contributors to the codices have included accounts of such supernatural events preceding the arrival of the
Spanish?
2. Why do you think the Spanish frequently incorporated such accounts into their own descriptions of the conquest?

1.
How does this painting present the relationship between Cortes and Moctezuma? Are they meeting as equals, enemies, allies, as ruler and subject?
2.
What do the items at the bottom of the image represent?
3.
Does this image challenge or support the perception that the Aztecs viewed the Spanish newcomers in religious terms?
4.
The woman standing behind Cortes in Dona
Marina, also known as La Malinche. Cortes once wrote, “ after God we owe this conquest of New
Spain to Dona Marina.” To what extent do you agree with this, based on last night’s reading?

“ [W]hen the dance was loveliest and when song was linked to song, the Spaniards were seized with an urge to kill the celebrants. They all ran forward, armed as if for battle. They closed the entrances and passageways…they [they] rushed into the Sacred
Patio to slaughter the inhabitant…They attacked the man who was drumming and cut off his arms. Then they cut off his head, and it rolled across the floor.
They attacked all the celebrants stabbing them, sparing them , striking the with swords..Others they beheaded..or split their heads to pieces…The blood of the warriors flowed like water and gathered into pools…[T]hey invaded every room, hunting and killing.
”
1. What elements of the description above are reflected in the painting?
2. What image of the Spanish does this painting reflect?

1. Whose perspective do you think it represented in this image? Spanish, their
Tlaxcala allies, or the Aztecs? How might each of them understood this retreat differently?
2. In neither source in slides 9 and 10 are the
Spanish are portrayed with firearms. How might you understand their omission?
3. Do you notice any evidence of cultural blending in this image?

1. How do these images, from the
Florentine Codex, an Aztec portrayal of the diesase, represent the impact of the smallpox epidemic, and the Aztec response to it?